Angel Claw
by Haninator
Summary: Betrayal has taken its toll on everyone's favorite toys.


I think it's time I did a fic for something besides Zelda, Star Wars, or Indiana Jones. This scene really pulled on my heart-strings when I saw it the second time. (I've seen it 3 times. XD) And I said to myself that I should do a fanfiction for it. So, here we are. I know it sort of focuses on Woody, but I (being the lazy person I am) didn't feel like doing different points of view for this… and looking at it now, I think it'd bog down the feel of it. This has to be my darkest fic yet. You have been warned… oh… there are SPOILERS in here. If you don't want the movie ruined… or at least part of it, then don't read this until you see it.

X

The betrayal was fresh, bursting with despair and hatred. They ran from the tortures, the heat of a bonfire that spelled doom for them all. Lotso had been rotten to the very core of his fluffy being. None of it mattered now. They'd never see him again.

Despite the finality of it all, Woody still clung to a sliver of hope, but as the seconds passed, it began to melt. The ground-up bits of trash beneath the group's feet suddenly was no longer there and they were falling. As soon as the realization hit them, the crushed bits of garbage reached up and met them again. Without taking another glance at the pit of fire they'd noticed only bare minutes before, the toys climbed desperately for the conveyer that had propelled them to almost certain doom.

Their efforts were absolutely futile; Rex slid rapidly towards the flames, arms flailing wildly, searching for something to grab onto as if it'd do anything for him. His arms were too weak to save him even if there was a way to do so. "Rex!" Woody yelled, diving for the green tyrannosaur. Nearby, the other toys, realizing the uselessness of their efforts, stopped trying to scale the moving wall of garbage pieces.

"Buzz, what are we going to do?" Jessie asked, fear taking her face. She didn't want to be incinerated; none of them did. No being should ever endure incineration.

The look on Buzz Lightyear's face told her that he had not a clue, no way of escape to supply. Jessie's eyes became glassy, as if her tears would quench the fires of their imminent destruction. Buzz blinked, sorrow in his eyes as he took her hand in his as if to tell her that if they faced doom together, everything would turn out absolutely fine. Bullseye floundered next to Jessie, hooves flailing for purchase in the garbage, fighting the pull. The cowgirl reached out and placed her hand on his hoof, a regretful look stealing over her face. One by one, Hamm, Slinky, Rex, and Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head all joined hands, uniting against annihilation. Woody still attempted to climb the moving mass of trash until finally, the sliver of hope he'd clung to dissolved. He looked over at Buzz and the look he received was just as horrified as his own. He clasped hands with his best friend. Buzz gave him an apologetic look, one that illustrated his feeling of insufficiency. Woody returned the look perfectly and turned to face the heat as he grabbed Slinky's other paw. Together, they all presented a united front against the inferno below. Almost everyone closed their eyes. Woody left his open, staring at the white-orange heat source.

Memories flooded over him. The day he first met Buzz, what he'd done to him when he discovered that Andy liked him more, how he and Buzz had escaped Sid, when his arm had ripped right before Andy went to camp, when he'd first met Jessie, when Stinky Pete had ripped his arm a second time, when Buzz had saved him and Jessie, and when they had all escaped from Sunnyside. A peculiar thought came to him. Perhaps, if he'd known that this was going to happen, he'd have reacted differently in all of those situations. He didn't regret most of his decisions. If they hadn't been made, then his friendship with those near him wouldn't have been nearly as strong. At least Barbie had made it out of Lotso's rule unscathed.

Just as he winced at the fiery pit, light, true light from the moon, bathed the entire area. Woody looked up and saw what appeared to be an angel surrounded by pure white light. As it came closer, he saw that it was a giant metal claw with a floodlight behind it. At that point, he didn't care who was manning it, just as long as the almost Heavenly thing extracted them from the comparable Hell of the pit beneath. It crashed down on top of them, picking them all up with a considerable amount of garbage and rescuing them.

The toys looked around in wonder as the claw raised them toward their saviors. Three green triple-eyed aliens looked back at them and said in a trance-like voice, "The claaaaaw."

X

It must be the apocalypse… you guys get a fic from me that doesn't have a whimsical AN. Dang… I'm losin' my touch, ain't I? I've been gone too long! I'm gettin' soft!

EvilEwok: Oh, really? *poke* No. Still just right.

Haninator: You little-!

Link: So much for "serious."


End file.
